Credit portal

Stark Racial Divisions in Reactions to Ferguson Police Shooting

Blacks and whites have sharply different reactions to the police shooting of an unarmed teen in Ferguson, Mo. and the protests and violence that followed. Blacks are about twice as likely as whites to say that the shooting of Michael Brown “raises important issues about race that need to be discussed.” Wide racial differences also are evident in opinions about of whether local police went too far in the aftermath of Brown’s death, and in confidence in the investigations into the shooting.

The new national survey by the Pew Research Center, conducted Aug. 14-17 among 1,000 adults, finds that the public overall is divided over whether Brown’s shooting raises important issues about race or whether the issue of race is getting more attention than it deserves: 44% think the case does raise important issues about race that require discussion, while 40% say the issue of race is getting more attention than it deserves.

By about four-to-one (80% to 18%), African Americans say the shooting in Ferguson raises important issues about race that merit discussion. By contrast, whites, by 47% to 37%, say the issue of race is getting more attention than it deserves.

Fully 65% of African Americans say the police have gone too far in responding to the shooting’s aftermath. Whites are divided: 33% say the police have gone too far, 32% say the police response has been about right, while 35% offer no response.

Whites also are nearly three times as likely as blacks to express at least a fair amount of confidence in the investigations into the shooting. About half of whites (52%) say they have a great deal or fair amount of confidence in the investigations, compared with just 18% of blacks. Roughly three-quarters of blacks (76%) have little or no confidence in the investigations, with 45% saying they have no confidence at all.

Reactions to last week’s events in Ferguson divide the public by partisan affiliation and age, as well as by race. Fully 68% of Democrats (including 62% of white Democrats) think the Brown case raises important issues about race that merit discussion. Just 21% of Democrats (including 25% of white Democrats) say questions of race are getting more attention than they deserve. Among Republicans, opinion is almost the reverse – 61% say the issue of race has gotten too much attention while 22% say the case has raised important racial issues that need to be discussed.

By a wide margin (55% to 34%), adults under 30 think the shooting of the unarmed teen raises important issues about race. Among those 65 and older, opinion is divided: 40% think the incident raises important racial issues while about as many (44%) think the issue of race is getting more attention than it deserves.

Republicans also are more likely than Democrats to view the police response to the Ferguson shooting as appropriate and

to express confidence in the investigations into the incident. More Republicans think the police response has been about right (43%) than say it has gone too far (20%); 37% have no opinion. Democrats by 56% to 21% say the police response has gone too far (23% have no opinion). Nearly two-thirds of Republicans (65%) have at least a fair amount of confidence in the investigations into the shooting, compared with 38% of Democrats.

Comparing Reactions to Ferguson and Trayvon Martin

While on balance whites think that the issue of race is getting too much attention in the Ferguson shooting, a higher percentage of whites expressed that view last year after a Florida jury found George Zimmerman not guilty in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin. After the Zimmerman verdict, 60% of whites said race received more attention in that case than it deserved; today, fewer whites (47%) say that about the shooting of the unarmed teen in Ferguson.

Partisan reactions to the two incidents are similar. Majorities of Republicans think that in both the Brown (61%) and Trayvon Martin (68%) cases, the issue of race receives too much attention. Majorities of Democrats say both cases raise important issues of race that need to be discussed (68% Brown, 62% Martin).

The Week’s News

Roughly one-in-four (27%) very closely followed news last week about the police shooting of African American teenager Michael Brown and subsequent protests in Ferguson, Missouri. Several other stories garnered similar interest, including the death of actor Robin Williams (27%) and news about the Ebola outbreak in Africa (25%). Similar shares also tracked news about U.S. airstrikes in Iraq (23%) and the situation between Russia and Ukraine (22%).

News interest in Trayvon Martin’s death in 2012 and George Zimmerman’s trial in 2013 was large for several weeks. In March 2012, a few weeks after Martin’s death, 35% of the public followed that story very closely, including 70% of blacks and 30% of whites. Public interest in the Ferguson events was similar to interest in the April 2001 Cincinnati riots after a police officer killed black teenager Timothy Thomas (24%).

Interest last week about Ferguson was highest among non-Hispanic blacks. Fully 54% closely followed news about the shooting and protests, compared with 25% of non-Hispanic whites and 18% of Hispanics.

As is typically the case, adults ages 65 and older paid closer attention than younger adults to many of the week’s news stories. Interest was somewhat similar, however, in regard to Robin Williams’ death. One-in-four adults 18-29 (25%) closely followed his death, compared with 34% of adults 65 and older.

One-in-five young adults (20%) closely followed news from Ferguson, less than the share of those 50-64 (34%) and 65 and older (33%). For the three international stories—Ebola outbreak, Iraq, and Russia-Ukraine—older adults’ interest also was much greater than that of younger adults.